Results for "google self-driving cars"

A Google executive has revealed that the Internet giant has put together a team of suppliers as part of its self-driving car efforts. These suppliers are said to be both "traditional and non-traditional", and have been joined by talks with some of the top auto makers across the globe. All in all, Google is looking to get its autonomous vehicles on the market by 2020, a date that is quickly approaching. Among the companies Google has been talking to are Toyota, Ford, and GM.

Google's self-driving car prototypes may have been designed with the most basic of controls, but California is throwing a wrench in the works by demanding the 100 pod cars have some way for users to take over from the robot brain. While Google had intended to give the road-going prototypes nothing but a start button and a stop button, the California DMV has given the search giant an ultimatum on safety.

Google is making its own self-driving cars, and it wants you to see them. The surprise announcement of a fleet of autonomous vehicles - based on Google’s many thousands of miles of research driving, but without the safety backup of traditional controls - to test their viability was notable not only for how audacious Google is being, but for the scale of the challenge its chosen design presents to the current car industry behemoths.

Google is still actively pursuing self-driving car commercialization, though Sergey Brin's 2017 prediction may not come true as the company continues to develop their safety features and the high-definition mapping they need for successful navigation. Last year, Brin said he envisaged autonomous car tech being on the market within five years, though a new batch of hands-off test-drives suggest that not only is there still some ways to go before that's practical, but that Google is taking a markedly different approach to other self-driving projects.

Self-driving cars could be on the roads by 2016, specialist Mobileye Vision claims, though don't expect the full autonomy of a Google driverless car unless you have a very deep wallet. The company is readying a camera-based system which relies on a few hundred dollars of components, rather than the tens of thousands of dollars Google pays for each of the lidar sensing arrays atop its own test vehicles, though as The NYTimes discovered it doesn't add up to quite the same relaxing, hands-off ride.

We've been hearing a lot about Google's self-driving car lately, and we're all probably wanting to know how exactly the search giant is able to construct such a thing and drive itself without hitting anything or anyone. A new photo has surfaced that demonstrates what Google's self-driving vehicles see while they're out on the town, and it looks rather frightening.

Google has poached a US highway safety executive to work on its driverless cars program, NHTSA deputy director Ron Medford, to better guide its autonomous cars through evolving legislation. Medford, who has worked at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration since 2003, will jump ship to Google's automotive division from January 7, 2013, as the new Director of Safety for Self-Driving Cars.

A few hours ago, Google's Eric Schmidt had an interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. During the 60 minute discussion, Schmidt touched on a lot of topics, including the current patent wars, Apple and Google Maps, and his experience of riding in a self-driving car. The interview was wrapped up with a Q & A session, in which Schmidt answered a variety of questions, some hypothetical, some relevant to current issues.

Google’s self-driving cars have gained regulatory approval for testing in several states across America, and new information indicates just how much the company has been testing the vehicles. Google’s fleet of self-driving cars have reportedly amassed more than 300,000 miles under a myriad of different traffic conditions, and better yet, not a single accident has occurred since the company began testing the cars.

Google has been letting its self-driving cars off their leash again this week, bringing the driverless vehicles to TED 2011 and allowing attendees of the conference to ride in them. Limiting its demos to a nearby parking lot, Search Engine Land reports, Google had tweaked the cars to show far more aggressive driving than previously seen.

Rather than the automated route creation usually relied upon when the driverless cars are on highways - fathomed using road-recognition cameras, GPS, various other sensors and a general destination in mind - in the parking lot the route was pre-determined. As normal, Google uses a safety driver, who can take over in case of issues with the robocar system.